The downfall of Harvard’s president has elevated the threat of unearthing plagiarism, a cardinal sin in academia, as a possible new weapon in conservative attacks on higher education.

Claudine Gay’s resignation Tuesday followed weeks of mounting accusations that she lifted language from other scholars in her doctoral dissertation and journal articles. The allegations surfaced amid backlash over her congressional testimony about antisemitism on campus.

The plagiarism allegations came not from her academic peers but her political foes, led by conservatives who sought to oust Gay and put her career under intense scrutiny in hopes of finding a fatal flaw. Her detractors charged that Gay — who has a Ph.D. in government, was a professor at Harvard and Stanford and headed Harvard’s largest division before being promoted — got the top job in large part because she is a Black woman.

Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist who helped orchestrate the effort, celebrated her departure as a win in his campaign against elite institutions of higher education. On X, formerly Twitter, he wrote “SCALPED,” as if Gay was a trophy of violence, invoking a gruesome practice taken up by white colonists who sought to eradicate Native Americans.

“Tomorrow, we get back to the fight,” he said on X, describing a “playbook” against institutions deemed too liberal by conservatives. His latest target: efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in education and business.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Yeah. I feel like this is a more logical reason:

    Her resignation came after calls for her ouster from prominent conservatives including Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Harvard alumna, and Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge fund manager who has donated millions to Harvard.

    Colleges are all about the money, even when theyre like Harvard and literally don’t need it.

    I’m sure lots of other donors weren’t happy a Black woman was president. Enough of them saying they won’t donate, and the board offers the president a chance to resign before their forced out.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Harvard could stop collecting tuition, double everyone’s salary, and still “live” off their endowment interest.

        They literally have no need for money, but still bend over backwards for donors because at the top of the food chain they still want to see numbers go up just for the sake of numbers going up.

        Harvard has the definition of “fuck off money”.

        It’s just capitalist momentum means they’ll never have “enough” to be satisfied

      • bostonbananarama@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I assume it’s a reference to Harvard being the richest university in the world, sitting on a roughly $51 billion dollar endowment.